With all major free agents off the board, NBA news has been something of a slow trickle after the mammoth news regarding Kawhi Leonard and Paul George teaming up on the LA Clippers. One signing did take place late Tuesday night, however, the Orlando Magic reportedly signed second-year big man Khem Birch to a two-year/$6 million deal according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Free agent F Khem Birch has agreed to a two-year, $6M deal to return to Orlando, agents Mike George of @OneLegacySports and Jeff Schwartz of @excelsm tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 10, 2019
Birch saw action in 50 games for the Magic as one of the team’s backup center options. He started the season by splitting his backup minutes with #6 overall pick Mohamed Bamba, but Bamba was shut down halfway through the season, which opened the door for Birch to get the lion’s share of the Magic’s backup minutes behind All-Star Nikola Vucevic.
Birch actually started his first career game last season for the Magic, and he put up some gaudy advanced stats. Birch produced a career-high 19.2 Player Efficiency Rating per Basketball Reference and notched 2.8 win shares, a 2.4 box plus/minus and a lofty 64 percent true shooting percentage, which was also a career-high.
A decent shot-blocker, Birch logged 29 total rejections and 0.6 blocks per game on a 3.8 block rate per Basketball Reference.
The 26-year-old Canadian native will likely play a similar role to what he did last season on the Magic, as the team seemingly “ran it back” with the same core that produced a seven-seed last year by re-signing Vooch, Terrence Ross, Michael Carter-Williams and now Birch. The team is also expecting former #1 overall pick Markelle Fultz to play next season.
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